First Contact
by kilroyactual117
Summary: Alessandra Hirakawa never signed on to fight Aliens, not even when she was a proud memeber of the 105th ODSTs. She preferred to fight an enemy that looked, sounded, and thought like her, so becoming a cop seemed like the perfect retirement choice. However, even small towns on hidden planets aren't safe from an alien foe on a mission to wipe out all that humanity holds dear.


**AN: Hello Spartans.**

 **This is yet another short story I conceived in between writing Murphy's Law and BOTGB. I love showing the Human Covenant War from perspectives not shown in the books and games, especially perspectives of less glamorous military and law enforcement units. Hopefully this story accomplishes that.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **"The speed at which you respond to a fight call is inversely proportional to how long you've been a cop."**

 **"Bullets work on veteran cops too. They also work on weight lifters, martial arts experts, department marksmen, Narco Investigators, S.W.A.T. jocks, and others who consider themselves immortal."**

 **"On any call, there will always be more `bad guys' than there are good guys, and the farther away your back-up, the more there will be."**

 **-Excerpts from Murphy's Laws of Law Enforcement**

* * *

 _"Dispatch to all New Llanelli Sheriff's department units, be advised, citizens report active shooters and explosive ordnance detonation at 500 North pine road in O'Connor County. Suspects appear to be heavily armed and armored._

 _"Armed response requested. Use of lethal force authorized. Code 3."_

It took a few moments for that call to register in Sheriff Alessandra Hirakawa's mind. She'd been with the New Llanelli sheriff's department for three years, and she'd never come across anything more harrowing than a bad domestic violence incident, but this sounded like the kinda call she would've gotten when she was an ODST fighting on the front lines against the insurrection.

New Llanelli was a sleepy planet, so long as you stayed away from the cities. What in god's name would posses someone to do something like this in the middle of nowhere?

"Sheriff Hirakawa, responding," she said over the radio.

"Deputies Raven and Aliyeva, responding," replied another, Finish accented voice.

"New Llanelli SWAT responding, but it'll take us two hours to redeploy. We just wrapped up another incident in New Belfast city."

Sheriff Hirakawa stepped on the gas pedal of her patrol car and flipped on her lights and sirens as she sped towards the scene of the crime. As an ODST, she was trained to deal with things like this. She'd fought the insurrection on a dozen UNSC worlds and stopped hundreds of trained killers, but that was years ago. She'd left the UNSC, before the business with the Covenant luckily, and ran for Sheriff of her home town to get away from the horrors of what Humanity could do to itself, and maybe try to prevent a few more horrors from happening.

Yet trouble managed to catch up with her, as it did with everyone living on the frontiers of UNSC space. If it wasn't innies it was crazies, and nowadays Covies. It seemed that all of her problems started with a C.

"Dispatch, alert the local Army garrison." Snapped Alessandra. "Tell them I need I need orbital thermal imaging of the area, and tell aviation to get their asses in gear."

"Dispatch copies all," came the immediate response, which was made possible by the fact that the dispatcher wasn't human at all. Rather it was a dumb AI programmed to route all of the planet's police forces with maximum efficiency.

A moment later a UNSC Army logo and the message _"UNICOM central intelligence feed. Military and law enforcement use only"_ popped up on the screen of her laptop, which was mounted in the center of her patrol car. The screen slowly loaded a colorful thermal image of the area where the shooters were. Five or six amorphous figures moved about the area, firing weapons in random directions. Alessandra could see a few dead bodies strewn about on the ground, but any live civilians appeared to have fled the area long ago.

Dammit, she cursed.

She'd seen too many dead civilians in her tenure fighting the innies, and she wasn't about to allow any more to die. Not on her watch, and not on her planet.

When she finally reached the area a quarter mile from the scene that dispatch marked as the staging ground she immediately shut off her siren and hopped out of her patrol car. She ran to the trunk and began to pull on her riot gear.

She hadn't elected to use the standard issue police gear, which consisted mostly of surplus UNSC Marine armor with a new paint job. She kept her old, banged up ODST armor when she left the service, repainted it OD green to match her new uniform, added raid patches which read SHERIFF in block letters, and welded her badge to the chest plate.

When it was all clipped on she slid on her helmet, covering her midnight black hair which she kept in a short, bob cut. She could see her black eyes and Japanese features reflected back at her in her helmet's visor for a moment before her HUD kicked in, showing her ammo counter and vital status.

She checked the time on her wrist gauntlet. 01:43 hours. Crickets, which were artificially introduced to the planet by its terraformers, chirped in the warm night air as Alessandra stood alone on a gravel road surrounded by nothing but tall oak trees and a stray night sky.

She quickly remembered to flip on her armor's cooling system. Warm night air wouldn't be nice for long if you were running around in it in thirty pounds of armor.

She ran to the passenger seat of her patrol car and pulled out her M45E shotgun, which had its furniture painted yellow to signify its use as a less than lethal weapon. Normally she kept it loaded with special electrified slugs, meant to shock and stun on contact, but after what she'd seen on the surveillance feed she wasn't going to bother trying to capture these assholes. She pumped the weapon clear of shells and loaded it with 8 gauge buckshot. When she finished she saw another pair of red and blue lights approaching in the distance. The other patrol car pulled in behind hers and out jumped too additional officers, who ran to gear up as well.

Deputy Natalie Aliyeva was more or less ready.

She didn't wear much by way of armor, just a simple Marine Corps issue chest piece. As the Department's trained marksman, she preferred to stay light on her feet. Any protective gear would simply hinder her ability to carry her ten pound SRS99 sniper rifle. She pulled on a headset, shooting glasses, and hearing protection over her long, blonde hair which she wore in a ponytail, then slung her back up MA5K rifle, and pulled on her active camo cloak.

Even when it wasn't activated, her cloak shimmered in the moon lit night. Woven into it were thousands of tiny pixels that would change color and allow her to become totally invisible at the click of a button. She could stand in the middle of an urban street or in dense country foliage and be equally camouflaged.

"Ready to go Sheriff!" She said in a thick, Slavic accent.

The other Deputy, a mountain of a man by the name of Nicholas Raven required a little more time. In addition to a full set of critical response gear, he also carried an M7 SMG and a full size ballistic shield. The high carbon polymer shield weighed in at twenty pounds, but could stop a fifty caliber round dead in its tracks.

"Ready," he said humorlessly.

Alessandra ducked into her patrol car to assess the map of the area one last time, but found it was gone from her monitor when she returned.

"Dammit," she cursed, "dispatch, where is my satellite feed?"

"Standby Sheriff," responded dispatch, "Army signals intelligence believes the satellite experienced a collision with an unidentified object. They are unable to retask another satellite due to a hold on orbital surveillance issued by the Office of Naval Intelligence."

"Dammit," cursed Alessandra, "what about SWAT, or air support?"

Dispatch was silent for a moment as it processed the request, while crickets chirped eerily in the night air.

"New Belfast City SWAT is enroute, but is still an hour and a half out. O'Connor county sheriff's department aviation wing reports that their pelican is experiencing troubles with the port stabilizer, and is currently unfit to fly."

Alessandra's heart sank. So that was it. They'd have to go in blind against an unknown number of heavily armed active shooters.

She looked grimly towards her two deputies. Both of them looked weary of what they were walking into, but neither one looked ready to back down.

Natalie still bore her characteristic smirk and Nick's mouth was still set in a thin line. Looks like she was about to start appreciating how lucky she was to have a good team at her back.

"Alright. The address the first 911 call came from is a quarter mile up the road," said Alessandra. "We fast march their and stick to the tree line. Once we're in sight of the house, Natalie will take up overwatch while Nick and I kick in the door."

Both of them nodded.

"Let's take these bastards down," growled Natalie.

Nicholas didn't say as word as he fell in line behind Alessandra.

What words needed to be said? They were off to wreck some motherless asshole's world, alone. That was enough for all of them.

Alessandra sighed. The night was almost too peaceful for this bullshit. Clean air filled her lungs as she metered her breathing so she didn't tire herself. The soft sounds of the forest helped soothe her adrenaline as she prepared to confront a group of murderers.

She didn't have to travel far before she realized she'd be doing more than that.

A soft orange glow began to appear on the horizon as they trekked towards the scene of the crime. As they drew closer they realized that it emanated from an inferno that engulfed the house of the victim, the only house on this sleepy gravel road.

"Shit. Dispatch. I need a fire apparatus here ASAP."

"Understood," responded dispatch, "ETA twenty minutes. However, they will not approach until you've cleared the area of suspects."

Alessandra sighed. It seemed like everyone on New Llanelli had an excuse not to be here tonight.

She turned to face her team, who were already fairly worn out from running a quarter mile in full gear.

"Aliyeva!" Alessandra barked, "find a firing position and identify our suspects. Raven and I will move in and try to incapacitate them. If not, be ready."

Natalie smirked and engaged her active camo cloak. Every part of her other than her boots, face, and rifle faded into their surroundings. Alessandra watched as the shimmering figure began to scale a nearby oak tree, and perch itself on a branch.

She turned to Raven and gestured for him to move forward.

With hardened blue eyes and an unreadable expression, he nodded and dropped his ballistic shield in front of his body. His SMG rested against his chest on a sling, ready to go at a moment's notice. Alessandra crouched behind him, raised her shotgun, and began to follow him towards the house.

As they drew closer she began to feel the heat of the blaze, even through her armor. Before they got too close she grabbed Nick's shoulder and stopped him. There was no one left alive in that house. Twenty foot tall flames fanned from it as the ceiling collapsed, igniting trees. They had bigger fish to fry.

She wordlessly motioned towards the backyard. She didn't see any vehicles, which meant whoever did this couldn't have gotten far, and if they were still around that was as good a place to check as any.

"Nat," said Alessandra, "we're proceeding to the back yard. Do you have any targets?"

"Negative," responded the sniper.

 _Of course not_ , thought Alessandra.

I She nodded to Nick who changed course and started to head for the small house's backyard. A shoddily built wooden gate, repaired with sheets of plasteel and plywood, separated the backyard from the front. The fence was beginning to catch as the house fell to pieces, which was good for Nicholas as it was easy to find a charred section to bash through.

A section of the fence exploded with sparks and splinters as he charged through it, shield first with Alessandra in tow.

"Sheriff's department, drop your weapons!" She shouted reflexively.

However, her command fell on deaf ears. Laid out before her was an open or a yard, empty other than what remained of a fence, a small tool shed, and at least ten bodies, all of were sprawled out on their face, as though they'd been killed while running.

She felt a hint of sickness in the pit of her stomach. She'd seen violence against civilians while she was an ODST, but these people hadn't been caught in a crossfire. They were slaughtered in their own backyard. The lawn chairs that were set, and a toppled stack of firewood out suggested that they were planning to have a bonfire, something fairly common this far out in the woods. What sick fuck had seen fit to murder them all?

Alessandra was about to move to check the bodies when the door to the shed burst open.

"Sheriff's department! On the floor now!" She shouted in anger as she leveled her shotgun at whoever was crazy enough to startle her now.

"Help! Help! Help!" Came a cry in a hoarse voice.

A male figure continued to run at her from inside the shed, shouting at the top of his lungs. Something she couldn't identify was in his right hand.

"Stop now or I will shoot!" Yelled Alessandra one last time.

And the man didn't stop.

She wasn't going to take any chances. It'd been years since she'd had blood on her hands. As a sheriff in a county like this she rarely even had to draw her gun or put on her armor. Now she was about to end a life, out of fear.

She pulled the trigger. She swore she felt the firing pin strike the primer as the pellets shot out of the barrel. They impacted their target center mass, a young man, maybe thirty, wearing shorts and a t-shirt and holding a phone.

At a mere three feet away from her he didn't stand a chance. Blood blossomed from his chest, shooting out onto her armor, and coating her in thick blood. His body fell against her as he began to flail, still pleading with her to help him.

"Help! Help. _Help..._ " His cries grew softer as the blood quickly drained from him.

And then he stopped moving.

Alessandra stood, awestruck for a long moment, in a pile of blood and gore.

A moment ago this man was alive, now he was dead. Was he the 911 caller? It didn't matter now. He was dead. One moment he was alive, then he was gone. She hadn't caused that? Had she? No. There was no way. She'd never kill an innocent man. That was something only aliens and innie bastards would do.

 _I killed him_ , she thought.

She vaguely could hear Nat yelling into her radio and feel Nick shaking her, but neither really registered. She shouldn't allow herself to do this. She was at the scene of a crime. She could be shot and killed freezing up like this.

Just like she'd done to this man.

She dropped down to try and save him, but she knew it was helpless. Placing her hands on his chest only soaked them in blood. She tore open the first aid kit she kept strapped to her left leg, but inside there wasn't enough biofoam to fill an over-penetrating 8 gauge shotgun wound.

 _Dead_.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of a gruff voice shouting loud enough to make up for years of silence.

"Sheriff!" Shouted Raven as he ran over to her. "Are you injured."

Alessandra looked down at her blood red hands.

"I-I," she stumbled. "I killed him. I killed him goddamnit."

Reflexively she grabbed at her face, but only ended up turning her visor crimson red. She can't do this. She can't freeze up in a situation like this. She might be staring down life or death. How could she do this to her team? Her vision cleared slightly as two powerful hands ripped her gloved fist from her visor.

"Sheriff," screamed Nicholas, "pull yourself together."

Alessandra reluctantly allowed him to pull her hands down to her sides.

"This isn't your fault, and we still have active shooters on the loose. I need to know that you're ok. Can I count on you."

Alessandra took a deep breath. She could do this. She had a job to do. She could face the consequences for what she'd done here later. If she didn't find whoever killed the rest of these people, he would have died in vain.

"I-I'm ok," she said shakily.

"I'm ok."

She took a firm hold on her shotgun, and used the stock to push herself to her feet. She racked it hard, ignoring the blood on the muzzle, and shouldered it.

She blinked hard, and forced her thoughts to the back of her mind. She needed to act on instinct here. It was the only way to survive combat.

 _How did I ever make it through the insurrection?_

"Aliyeva, what's the situation?" Asked Alessandra.

There was a brief pause before the unseen marksman responded. "We appear to be clear. No targets on visual or infrared."

Alessandra wasn't sure whether she should curse, or breathe a sigh of relief. On one hand, she wanted to shoot whoever was responsible for this massacre, and on the other hand she didn't want to risk shooting anyone who was desperately looking for help.

 _Shake it off Alessandra. Your team needs you._

She moved to examine the bodies, which were sprawled all over each other near the fire. One even landed in the fire, burning its clothes and flesh. She was sure without her helmet's air filters the smell would be horrible.

Right off the bat she noticed something was out of place. There was no blood spatter on any of these victims, and on closer examination, no entry or exit wounds either. The bodies were also covered in charring that wasn't fanned out like charring from a fire. Instead it had flash torched right through them in a nice, neat hole and burned them to the bone.

This wasn't a wound a civilian cop would be able to identify easily, but Alessandra knew its cause all too well. Wounds like these were what kept helljumpers up at night, and were the reason she mustered out of the UNSC.

These were plasma burns, from covenant weapons.

She'd never directly engaged the covenant in battle, but she was involved in the evacuation efforts on Arcadia, where the covenant did a number on the civilian population. She guarded an evac transport while marines from the spirit of fire kept the covenant and bay and dragged in scores of wounded with broken, half melted bodies.

She nearly vomited inside her helmet several times that mission. It was then that she realized she wouldn't be able to fight an enemy that could do this to people. Some called her a coward for running, but when you think you've been in the military nine years, and think you've seen the worst the universe can offer, only to have that dropped on you, it's hard not to think twice about whether you have the strength to continue on.

The real question was how the hell these civilians ended up with Covenant weapon burns on them. She didn't see the sky falling, or oceans of plasma boiling up to consume the planet, so the covenant couldn't be involved, right?

Raven caught up to her gaze a moment later and furrowed his brow.

"What the hell killed them?" He asked.

Alessandra frowned gravely.

"Covenant weapons," she said curtly. "And since we aren't boiling in a sea of plasma yet, I'd say it'd have to be the insurrection."

Raven paused, and then nodded gravely.

"I've heard of them using captured covenant weapons to cause panic. We need to report this."

Alessandra took a knee and activated her radio. "Dispatch this is sheriff Alessandra Hirakawa, badge number 35627," she said, "be advised, we have cleared the area the 911 call originated from. A civilian was killed during our breach, and at least ten more were killed with plasma weapons before we arrived. We believe this incident may be terrorism related. Contact UNSCTSA and compile a list of all individuals with terrorist contacts who've entered or left the planet recently. Also advise UNICOM of the situation and tell them we need military backup to deal with this caliber of weapons.

"And tell ONI to retask me a damn satellite. How copy?"

There was a pause from the dumb AI after the long line of commands. It never did well processing her anger.

"Dispatch copies all. Relevant agencies have been notified of your requests. Please stand by," said the AI.

Alessandra stood and assessed the area. Red and blue lights and the sound of fire department sirens began to fade into her vision. Dispatch must have told them the area was clear, for now. A shimmering presence also ghosted against the background of the blaze, until it lowered its hood and revealed itself to be Natalie,

stealthily reappearing to rejoin the group.

Both she and deputy Raven looked at her Alessandra intently. The haunted looks in their eyes showed that they were concerned for her ability to lead them through this situation. She had to dispel those roomers immediately.

She shouldered her shotgun and activated its underbarrel flashlight.

"We can't wait for backup," she said somberly. "We need to figure out where these assholes ran off to, and if we wait any longer they could get away."

Raven, as usual, didn't seem phased by that proposition, but Aliyeva's eyes widened in surprise and shock.

"You want us to go up against that?" Asked Aliyeva. "We're cops sheriff. Shouldn't we leave this to the UNSC?"

Alessandra sighed. Natalie was right. They weren't equipped to deal with this situation, but she'd already run from destruction like this once, and she wants going to make the same mistake twice.

"We all did our time in the service," said Alessandra, in a voice more confident than she felt. "We have training, and we swore an oath to defend or community. I don't know about you, but I don't know if I could sleep at night knowing I took that oath and let this..." She gestured to the pile of bodies, eliciting a sickened reaction from her deputies. "...happen to anyone else. We're gonna find these sons of bitches, and wait for SWAT to mop them up, and if they don't show in time, we all knew the risks."

Aliyeva hardened her eyes, and nodded.

"Sorry," she said, her tone a little lower. "I don't usually get cold feet like that."

Alessandra regarded her for a moment. The deputy was a lot younger than her, not even in her thirties yet. She'd seen a lot less than Alessandra. She was a fighter, but carnage like this could make even hardened veterans flinch.

"It's alright," said the sheriff. "Let's get a move on."

Alessandra walked back to the bloody crime scene and surveyed the area.

"Dispatch, ballistics analysis," she said.

A moment later red vector lines began to appear on her HUD, showing the direction the rounds came from.

"The suspects appear to have fired from this tree line," said dispatch, before highlighting a group of trees.

"A steady line of broken tree branches indicates their path. There was at least five of them, one was over 8 feet tall, and they didn't stay in the area for more than a few minutes. I detect no incendiary materials, so the fire was most likely started by their plasma weapons."

"8 feet?" Said Aliyeva.

"Looks like you've got a some competition Nick."

Deputy Raven looked at her blankly, and nodded.

Alessandra was oblivious to their banter. Her heart was still pounding and she had no time for anything but the mission.

"Copy that dispatch," she responded.

She didn't wait to issue an order to her subordinates. She knew they'd get the message. The three of them took off into the woods, ducking through the trees and following the path dispatch highlighted for her on her HUD.

"Sheriff hirakawa," said dispatch. "Elements from the UNSC Army National guard are mobilizing to meet you. They recommend you hold position and wait for them to arrive. ETA twenty minutes."

Hirakawa sighed. She was starting to feel less easy about this by the minute.

"Tell them we can take five men," she responded cockily. "I am not letting these fuckers get away,"

Alessandra saw the end of the path dispatch laid out for them fast approaching as they drew closer to a clearing in the trees filled with tall grass. Alessandra slowed her pace and held up her hand to signal her team to stop.

"Dispatch, u think there's a problem with my HUD," she said worriedly. "I can't see the path beyond that tree line. Can you guide me verbally?"

"Negative," responded dispatch immediately. "The path terminates there. I detect no tracks or trace radiation from their weapons. It's possible they were picked up by a vehicle, but if that's the case I don't detect any vehicle tracks or evidence of rotorwash."

"Sheriff!" Called out deputy Raven.

Alessandra immediately spun around to face him. The soft spoken man never said anything unless he knew it was important, and Alessandra needed all the information she could get right now.

"8 feet tall? Carries plasma weapons? Vanishes without a trace? These aren't insurrectionists we're facing."

Alessandra's heart skipped a beat. She didn't want to believe what he was implying.

That couldn't happen. Not now, not on her planet. She didn't see the sky falling yet.

 _You're full of shit Raven_ , she wanted to yell back, but she realized even she didn't believe herself.

Aliyeva lifted off the hood of her active camo cloak. Her wide eyes and blank frown said it all. Her team was terrified, and they had every right to be. She'd taken this too far.

"You're right," concede Alessandra, much to the relief of her team members.

"Dispatch. Please be advised. My team and I believe there are covenant forces operating in the area. We're going to need a lot more than the national guard out here. Please advise. Over."

Alessandra stood by for a response, but received nothing in return. Not even static. It was like her radio had been totally cut off.

"Dispatch!" She yelled into her mic once more.

 _Can one thing go my way tonight?!_

She looked up to survey her team, and saw a shimmer in the distance, not unlike that of Aliyeva's cloak. It was so discreet that her familiarity with the other officer's equipment was probably the only reason she spotted it.

However, Aliyeva was standing right in front of her, uncloaked.

There was a faint blue glow in the target's hand. The longer she looked at the form, the higher the blue light was raised, until it was almost level with her head….

"Contact!" Yelled Aliyeva, before she jerked her shotgun up from her side and fired.

The pellets tore through the night air and impacted their target, causing it to shimmer bright blue. A moment later it's camo failed, revealing a covenant elite, shielding its face with its arm.

It didn't even look like it'd been scratched. It's shields took the brunt of the impact.

It crouched, let out a guttural roar, and aimed its weapon at them.

Luckily, the sheriff's deputies weren't as big on blustering as the elite was. Raven slammed his sheiks hard into the dirt, embedding it into the ground before reaching for his M7. He laid on the trigger as he crouched behind the shield, emptying a mag into the target. Aliyeva reflexively flipped on her cloak before hitting the dirt and shouldering her sniper rifle.

The 14.5x114mm round split the night air. Combined with fire from the other three officer's weapons, the elite's shield popped. It screamed in rage and fell onto its back, dead in a pool of Fluorescent blood.

"Son of a bitch," screamed Aliyeva.

All three of the officers sat frozen in place. This situation had official gotten out of their hands.

"Fall back!" Yelled Alessandra without a second thought.

But her order came to late.

Behind the downed elite, several other shimmers appeared. A moment later they all decloaked, revealing ten or more elites, all angry, and with weapons leveled at the officers.

Plasma rounds ignited the air, and all at once the night turned bright blue.

Raven's shield took the brunt of the impact for him, but only for a moment. After only a few rounds made contact with his shield it began to heat red hot and melt in his hands.

He yelped in pain and threw it as far as he could before hitting the ground and crawling toward a nearby ditch.

Aliyeva quickly realized she wasn't going to be able to engage an enemy at this close of range with her sniper rifle. She reached for the MA5K she slept slung around her back, but wasn't able to bring it to bear before the elite's fire found her.

A round tore down her back and burned off her cloak and uniform top. She screamed in white hot pain as another round impacted right in front of her, kicking up dirt and residual plasma into her face, melting her right eye and part of her hair in an instant. She kept struggling to bring her rifle to bear, until another round impacted her left arm solidly, burning clear through it and severing it from her clean.

Alessandra saw the situation unfolding around her, and didn't think. Her only option was to react.

She dropped to one knee, grabbed Aliyeva's broken body around the waist and dragged her back to the trench Raven found.

She flailed and screamed in pain as she was dragged, badly injured as she was, five feet in just a few seconds. Her screams only grew louder as another round impacted her boot clad foot and boiled it off.

The sheriff's heart thudded against her rib cage in terror. She didn't have time to freeze up now. This moment had been coming to her ever since she abandoned the fight against the Covenant. She needed to get her team out of here, badly broken as they were.

"Nick! Cover me!" She yelled as she tore Aliyeva's MA5K from her badly burned and still writhing body and threw it to Raven.

Raven caught it and nodded before popping up over the trench and firing off a string of three round bursts at the encroaching Covenant.

"Dispatch dispatch please responded," yelled Alessandra into her radio. "We are under fire by covenant forces. 10-00. I repeat. Officer down. Where's that goddamn support?!"

There was a momentary response, before a foreign voice split the radio silence.

"Sheriff Hirakawa, this Colonel Logan, UNSC Army National Guard. How copy?"

Hirakawa snarled in anger. She didn't have time for this bullshit.

"Yeah I fucking copy," she responded angrily. "How about you tell me why I can't reach dispatch? We're fucking dying out here."

Dirt flew over her head as covenant rounds struck near her once again, filling the air with electric heat.

"We had to suspend communications in your area sheriff. We didn't need civilians listening to their police scanners and causing panic in the streets," responded the Colonel.

"You what?" Responded Hirakawa urgently.

The Colonel, however, ignored her urgency.

"We've known about the Covenant presence for a few hours, but alerting you may have caused panic. I'm truly sorry, Sheriff."

Alessandra roared in rage before seeing a few more plasma rounds scream over her head. She grabbed her shotgun and popped over the trench, firing a few rounds in the Covenant's direction. The first round popped an elite's shield, and the second killed it.

"Yeah," she said to the Colonel. "well you can personally kiss my sorry ass when you get down here and see my officer with half her face missing you bastard!"

"Sheriff!" Yelled the Colonel, interrupting her rant. "We are not abandoning you. The 12th armored division is on its way and the 91st marine air ground task force is standing by in orbit. ETA less than a minute."

"Standing by?" Asked Aliyeva as she took more fire.

Raven dropped back behind the trench and looked to her.

"Mag!" he yelled.

Alessandra nodded and reached to Aliyeva's scarred body, tearing a mag from her chest rig. Even the short lived contact caused more pain to wrack her shuddering body.

Raven caught the mag and reloaded the weapon, returning fire at the covenant.

"Standing by?" Continued Aliyeva. "Why don't you get them down here? What part of covenant don't you fucking understand?"

Aliyeva began to writhe even more, kicking Alessandra with the stub of her foot and failing her remaining arm.

"Natalie!" Yelled the sheriff as she ran over to her.

She took the injured woman's hand and held it tight to her chest.

"Hey. Calm down. It's gonna be alright. You're gonna make it through this!"

Alessandra wasn't sure the incoherent woman could understand what she was saying. Her pain, and broken body had her full attention. Even worse, there was nothing Alessandra could do for her.

"The Marines won't commit any ground forces until they're certain the Covenant aren't going to glass the planet and move on," responded the Colonel as Alessandra stared blankly at her scared friend's body. "Until then, we're all you got. Logan out."

Alessandra roared in rage.

"It's ok Nat," she said to her friend one last time. "Stay calm. We'll protect you."

Alessandra reluctantly let go of her hand and picked up her shotgun, returning fire alongside Deputy Raven.

The elites were getting far too close. Maybe ten yards out by now. It looked like Nick had dropped two or three of them, but that still left half a squad of shielded, deadly aliens bearing down on them.

She took a shot at one of the aliens, but their shields shrugged off the force of her shot.

Raven wasn't faring any better. He'd run out of ammo for Aliyeva's rifle, and switched back to his SMG, which was minimally effective against his shielded opponents.

Alessandra checked her helmet's clock. It'd been two minutes. Army reinforcements should have arrived by now.

As if on cue she heard a low droning in the distance. As it came closer it grew into a massive roar of jet engines screaming overhead.

The Air Force pelicans screamed high overhead of the Covenant. Contrails arced from their underwing missile pods, but they weren't heading for the Covenant squad in front of them.

The missiles arced off into the open field next to them, towards what seemed like empty space. However, before they impacted the ground, they exploded mid air, causing a massive energy field that encompassed the entire clearing to flicker and reveal itself.

Alessandra stared in awe at the massive domed shield, supported by an energy emitting spire at its center, that appeared in the middle of the field.

And on top of that, a force of what looked like thousands of Covenant stood ready, and given the recent attack, they were probably all very, very angry.

The pelicans took fire from anti-aircraft guns, but circled around nonetheless. One of them caught fire and crashed into the Covenant shield, bouncing off of it in a fiery wreck.

The remaining pelicans opened their bay doors and dropped hundreds of small forms from their troop bays. The light from the thrusters of the Army Airborne troopers jet packs shown brightly in the night sky as they descended upon the small, unshielded section of the forest closest to the tree lines.

The three of them must have shown up on the trooper's IFF readings, as moments after their drop, a group of troopers adjusted their descent course to set them down near the officer's position.

Before they even hit the ground their rifles began to roar as they fired upon the covenant squad. At first their rounds bounced off the alien's shield's, but their combined fire eventually forced the aliens to retreat to cover or risk having their shields popped.

The remainder of the pathfinders landed in the woods, laiden with flamethrowers and satchel charges. They fanned the woods with flames and blasts, burning and splintering trees to clear a landing zone for additional troops.

Alessandra saw her opportunity. She jumped up to the top of the ditch and leveled her shotgun at the covenant. She fired it's remaining two rounds at the elite's. Popping one's shields and dropping another.

The troopers encroached on the covenant position, draining their weapons into them and cutting through them. The Elites fought hard, but there wasn't enough of them. They fell, one by one.

When the last elite hit the ground, half the troopers dug in along the tree line while the other half ran towards the officers.

Alessandra jumped to the top of the ditch.

"Medic!" She called.

One of the troopers, whose air assault helmet was painted white with a red caduceus, dashed to the front of the formation. He tore passed Alessandra and jumped into the trench just as another string of plasma rounds were fired at them, this time from inside the shield.

Alessandra ducked back into the trench. This battle was far from over.

The medic scrambled to Aliyeva's position on his stomach, keeping himself as low to the ground as possible until he was right on top of her.

"Good god," he said as he looked at Natalie's charred form.

He pulled his medkit from his thigh and drew out a jet injector, which he discharged into Aliyeva's remaining arm. A moment later she ceased writhing, and fell into a more calm state. The medic began to spray down her many injuries with biofoam, but it would only do so much good. A lot of her was already gone.

"Help me get her out of here!" Yelled the medic to Alessandra.

She nodded and helped him unfold the collapsible stretcher he kept attached to his back. The two of them gently lifted the now silent Natalie onto the stretcher and picked it up.

Alessandra was ready to run off into the woods, but the medic held up his hands to stop her.

"Hermes-19, this is abaddon-2-3. Request evac. What's your eta?"

Alessandra didn't hear the response. She did, however, hear the sound of more jet engines rolling in from behind her.

A number of broadsword strike fighters screamed in for another attack run, losing missiles on the Covenant shield one more time, to no avail.

Behind them came a massive flight of condors and pelicans, carrying scorpion tanks and Mastodon APC.

They dropped them into the landing zone cleared by the airborne, and immediately they began to shell the shield with their guns, to no avail once again

Seeing that they were sitting ducks where they were, the armored formation immediately began to move through the clearing towards the Covenant shield.

They rolled through the barrier and were immediately inundated in plasma fire. Flames and black smoke began to billow inside the shield as the UNSC forces were torn to pieces. Many of the tank crews bailed from their flaming vehicles and ran screaming back through the shield, desperately trying to put out their flaming uniforms as their skin melted from their bones, while others charged on into the hell the Covenant made for them.

 _So this was the sort of combat I ran from_ , thought Alessandra.

She watched as one of the airborne troopers near her was struck by flaming debris from one of the many exploding tanks, flung through the air, and pinned to a tree by the massive piece of shrapnel, which was still adorned with the logo of the UNSC.

Alessandra began to feel nauseous. It took all her strength not to crumple to the ground as she felt bile begin to creep up her throat.

She tried to keep it down, but she couldn't. She set the stretcher down, tore off her helmet, and vomited in the dirt.

She'd never felt so disgusted with herself in her life. How many friends did she have in the ODSTs that she'd abandoned to this sort of warfare? Why did she chose to run when every other one of them chose to stay?

She'd failed each and every one of them.

She kept dry heaving until there wasn't any left to come up. She hacked and coughed as she pushed herself to her hands and knees.

She was yanked the rest of the way to her feet by a strong hand grabbing onto her shoulder.

"Sheriff!" Yelled deputy Raven. "We have to get going."

Alessandra nodded and struggled to stand on her wobbly feet. She moved back to Aliyeva's stretcher and picked it up.

"Evac coming in at ten o'clock," said the medic.

Alessandra looked to the flaming sky and saw what he was talking about a loan pelican, escorted by two wasps, broke away from the main formation. It's side was emblazoned with the same red caduceus that was on the medic's helmet.

The pelican lowered its boarding ramp before it even touched the ground. The crew chief frantically waved at them to run as the two wasps took fire from Covenant weapons and broke off to draw them away.

Alessandra, the medic, and Nicholas broke into a flat run for the pelican. Dirt, plasma, blood, and metal flew around them like a whirlwind from hell.

Alessandra was certain she wasn't going to make it. Any second now a plasma round would strike her, boil through her armor and sever her in half. It was just a matter of time before she'd be put out of her misery, and forget about this hell she'd been running from for years.

Even when her boots finally clanged on the metal of the pelican's boarding ramp she still didn't believe she'd survive. She couldn't. She didn't want to.

She slotted Aliyeva's stretcher into a bracket that replaced the starboard seats on the medical variant pelican. Natalie looked like a corpse as her badly burned body slowly failed her.

The flight nurse rushed over to her suffering woman and immediately began to cover her body in stem cell patches to help halt the atrophy she'd suffered.

"Raven! Get over here," Yelled Alessandra as she too began to pull patches from the pelican's extensive medical kit.

But he didn't respond.

"Dammit Rave…" Alessandra started to yell over her shoulder.

She abruptly stopped when she realized Raven wasn't behind her.

Alessandra looked frantically for where he could have gone, until her eyes landed on his body, laying face down in the dirt twenty yards behind the pelican. His uniform was on fire and his helmet had melted from the heat of the barrage of plasma that hit him.

"Dammit," swore Alessandra.

She'd left him. She'd left him to die!

She took off towards him without a second thought. Maybe he was still alive. Maybe, if she got there fast enough, she could save him.

She was stopped, however, by the Army medic, who pushed her back back into the pelican.

"Sheriff! Stay here. He's dead. You can't save him," he said.

Alessandra snarled in rage.

"Fuck you," she yelled as she tried once again to charge back down the boarding ramp.

She didn't get far, however. The crew chief caught her from behind and forced her to stay still while the medic ran down the boarding ramp to rejoin his crew, shutting it behind him.

Alessandra fought to break free, but the flight nurse soon joined him, and together they were enough to keep her restrained.

The boarding ramp closed, and the pelican's engine's fired, lifting it off the surface of the planet that was well on its way to becoming a fiery hell.

Alessandra stood, awestruck, at her failure. This was all her fault. Nick was dead because of her, Natalie would never lead a normal life again because of her, and here she stood, without a scratch on her.

When the flight nurse realized Alessandra wasn't going to resist any further he let her go and went back to her work on Natalie.

Alessandra slowly sulked over to Natalie's bedside. She wanted to scream, or cry, but she couldn't even speak. It was taking all of her energy just to stay alert.

She knelt down next to her friend, removed her helmet, and took her remaining hand, pulling it close to her face. The soft beeping of her heart rate monitor kept her focused as she tried to detach herself from reality.

Maybe this was all a bad dream. Maybe Natalie was alive. Maybe….

"Your friend here was lucky," said the flight nurse cynically. "The plasma rounds cauterized her wounds instantly, and managed not to hit anything too critical.

 _Yeah. 'Lucky.' That's the word,_ thought Alessandra.

She pressed her head to Natalie's chest to hear her heartbeat for herself. She couldn't believe the corpse laid out before her had truly survive.

But sure enough, it beat steady and strong. Natalie was a true survivor, with real strength. She'd survived an ordeal few could, and by the look of her many wounds, it wasn't over for her yet.

Alessandra was hit by guilt and shame like a lance of plasma striking a planet doomed to burn by the covenant. She'd caused this. If only she'd turned back when she was told to, if only she'd seen the signs and realized that these weren't human beings she was facing down, if only she hadn't quit the UNSC three years ago on Arcadia, maybe, just Maybe, none of this would have happened.

She felt a gentle pressure in her hand as Natalie squeezed her hand. She began to stir, and grimace as whatever the medic had injected her with began to wear off.

Alessandra gently squeezed back and placed her hand on Natalie's shoulder, keeping her in place. She glanced over to the flight surgeon, who nodded understandingly, and began to strap her down. They didn't need her flailing about the cabin in pain again.

"Natalie, hey," said Alessandra softly. "It's alright. You made it. You're going to be ok."

The injured woman didn't really seem like she could understand what Alessandra was saying, but the sound of her voice calmed her. Natalie turned to face her, and opened her one good eye.

Her expression was wracked with pain. She looked like she just wanted this nightmare to end, but it was far from over for her.

Alessandra sat there, looking back at her and holding her hand firmly until the pelican finally set down on the hanger deck of an orbiting carrier.

As the ramp lowered, Alessandra was presented with a scene out of _War of the Worlds_. The entire hangar deck was cluttered with stretchers filled with soldiers in as bad or worse condition than Natalie. Combat surgeons rushed around with biofoam and stem cell applicators, desperately trying to save the hundreds of casualties the covenant created.

Three of those surgeons rushed the pelican the moment it landed and loaded Natalie's stretcher onto a cart.

"Prep OR five," said one of them into his radio. "Patient in critical condition. Multiple missing limbs. Get someone from biomechatronics down here and prep for prosthetics attachment…."

The surgeon continued to issue orders as his team pushed Natalie's stretcher towards the operating room.

Alessandra grabbed her shotgun and chased after them. She wasn't about to leave Nat alone again.

She would always protect her, even if that meant rejoining the helljumpers and charging back into the fiery hell she'd just left. She'd make sure Natalie would never see war like that ever again. That would be her penance for her failure.


End file.
